Spacemen: The Grifening

Trading Card Game Rules

Introduction

Spacemen: The Grifening is a 2-player collectible trading card game. You can get cards by buying decks in a game vending machine. You can trade with your friends and build your deck however you want, but be aware that the standard rules require that a playing deck is a minimum of 40 and a maximum of 80 cards. To play the game, you will need a suitably sized table, the cards themselves, and two players. Optionally, some paper to help remember some things like your health points. The goal of the game is to make the other person lose. You can lose in the following ways:

• Your health drops to 0 or less. Each of the two players starts with 100 health.
• You need to draw a card from your deck but your deck is empty (i.e., you run out of cards).
• Some other card specific game winning condition.

Most of the game cannot be explained in these rules. Almost every card has a special effect which can change the rules of play slightly. What will be described here is the fundamentals so you can get started playing Spacemen: The Grifening. Almost all of these rules could be changed somehow by something written on a card in play, these are just the default. The first thing to do before playing is to shuffle the other person's deck and give it back to them so there's no funny business.

Playing Field

Here are the terminology for places cards can be at any time in the game. Note, there is one of each of these for each player.

• Deck

-Self-explanatory, it's your personal mysteriously ordered deck of cards that you draw from and are surprised/infuriated by.

• Hand

-The cards that you have so far pulled from your deck but haven't put into play yet, but are able to on your turn (usually).

• Field

-The cards that are actually in play, on the table for both players to see (could be face down or face up depending what you are doing, more on this later).

• Graveyard/Discard Pile

-The place where your dead characters and other used cards go.

• Gibbed Pile

-The place where your really dead characters go. Don't put stuff here unless a card explicitly says to.

Turns and How To Play Them

The Very First Turn

At the start of the game, draw the first five cards face down from the top of your own deck (both players do this simultaneously). The roll a dice or decide somehow who goes first amongst yourselves. The player who goes first completes what is called the "main phase" and ends their turn. The second player then starts normal play with a normal turn.

Every other turn

The procedure goes like this on your turn. When it is not your turn, there are some things you can do (explained later), but also make sure you are double checking your opponent is doing their turn correctly and not missing anything or cheating.

1. Start Phase

-Say you are starting your turn and find out if there are any start of turn effects that need to be applied, and say what they are.

2. Draw Phase

-Simply draw one card from your deck and put it in your hand unless stated otherwise. If you forget to draw a card before moving onto the main phase, you forfeit your draw.

3. Main phase

-This is where you play your cards down from your hand. This phase is the hardest to explain and is mostly the subject of the rest of this guide. For now, all you need to know is that you can play as many cards from your hand as you want during this turn that are valid to play. Except, you can only play one "mob"-type card per turn. Another thing you can do on this phase is activate any unactivated mobs (more on this later). Also, announce what you are doing so that your opponent knows. Make sure to do everything you need to do because you cannot play any cards from your hand freely like this once you enter the next phase.

4. Battle phase

-This is where the main action happens. The main focus of the game is on battling with your "mobs". A mob is like a character, and they are (probably) the most numerous type of card in your deck, named after people on the station and famous characters. Each mob has a level, attack, and defense value.

To enter the battle phase, verbally announce that you are entering the battle phase. During the battle phase, you can attack once with each of your activated (more on this later) mobs. You may choose any combination of mobs to attack with or not attack at all. If your opponent does not have any mobs in play, you may attack them directly, and they lose the amount of health equivalent to your mob's attack value. If your opponent does have mobs in play, you must destroy those mobs before you can attack your opponent directly. You must say your attacks one at a time and give your opponent a chance to respond to each before saying the next one.

How fights work

Each fight, compare your attacking mob's attack value to the defending mob's defense value. (The terms "activated" and "unactivated" will be explained in another section.)

• If the attacking value is greater, the defending mob is sent to the opponent's graveyard/discard (or possibly gibbed) pile. If the defending mob was activated, your opponent loses the amount of health equal to the difference between the attacker's attack value and the defender's defense value.
• If the defending value is greater, then your attacker is destroyed. In addition, if the defender's attack is greater than your attacker's defense, then YOU lose the amount of health equal to the difference between the defender's attack value and your attacker's defense value. This is called a counter-attack. An unactivated defender cannot perform a counter-attack.
• If the attack and defense values of the two mobs are the same, then both are either destroyed if the defender was activated, and neither are destroyed if the defender was unactivated. You may attack both activated or unactivated mobs (more on this later).

If an unactivated defender is attacked, they become activated. When you are done attacking, say you are finished battling.

5. End phase

-Same as the start phase, but at the end of the turn. Apply any end of turn effects if needed and say what they are.

Types of Cards and How to Play Them

There are primarily three types of cards in the game, though each of these are broken down into further subcategories and types. These three main types are: mob, effect, and area.

Mob Cards

The mainstay of cards in your deck, probably. As noted above, each has a level, attack, and defense value, and the applications for the latter two are explained above. The level usually doesn't do anything but there are some cards for which levels are relevant. You can only play one mob card per turn, and you can have a maximum of five of your mobs on the field at any time. When you play a mob card from your hand during the main phase, you can play it as either activated or unactivated. Activated means you play it face up so your opponent knows what it is, and you can attack with it as normal. Unactivated means you play it face down so your opponent doesn't know what it is, but you can't attack with it. During the main phase (but not the battle phase), you can choose to activate unactivated mobs in your field. Attacked unactivated mobs will be activated automatically (as they have to be revealed to see the outcome of a battle). There is a couple traits usually associated with every mob card: (Note 1: know that there are many cards affect the meaning and application of these terms, but these are generally the default) (Note 2: know that a mob can have multiple of these traits, and in fact usually do)

• Human/Nonhuman

-Usually self explanatory if not explicitly stated. The effects of this trait should be obvious on every card for which it is relevant, most notably cyborgs not usually being able to attack humans.

• Syndicate/Antagonist

-These are two separate traits, but similar. Every syndicate is an antagonist, but not every antagonist is syndicate. The syndicate trait is relevant for syndicate gear, as only syndicates can equip syndicate gear. The antagonist trait is important for the effects of a few cards.

• Department

-Usually, non-antagonist human mobs have a department/job associated with them which is important for the effects of some cards.

Effect Cards

The effect cards are the second most common kind card you will encounter, and probably the more complicated kind, because there is a such a wide variety of ways to use them. effect cards, similar to mob cards, can oftentimes be played either activated (face up) or unactivated (face down). Also, you can only have 5 effect cards of your own in play at any time.

1. Instant cards

These types of cards you use one time, on your turn, and you can only play them activated, as there is no reason to play them unactivated. Upon playing them, carry out their effects, then discard them. You can recognize this type of card because it usually says something about "when this card is played" or "when this card is activated", or using words like "currently" or "immediate".

2. Response cards

These cards can be used in response to something your opponent does, i.e., on their turn. It should be relatively obvious from the description of the card how this works and when the response can happen. You can recognize this type of card usually when it says "this card can be played face down" or "this card can be played in response to". Note that you cannot use a response card which is in your hand during your opponents turn, it has to be in play, on the table.

3. Equipment cards

These cards are played by equipping them to a mob. Most of them are meant to be equipped to your own mobs, but are meant to be played on your opponent's mob or anyone's mob. A mob can have any amount of equipment attached to it as long as neither player exceeds their 5 effect-card play limit (equipment you play on enemy mobs still count as your effect cards). Also, there is a special type of equipment card subtype called armor, and only one armor can be equipped to a mob at a time. Armor cards are clearly marked as such. You can usually recognize this type of card by the use of the words "wielder", "wielded", "equip", or "equipped".

4. Continuous cards

These cards are played like instant cards, but stay in play rather than being discarded after use. They include cards like ai laws and special events. You can almost always recognize these cards by the use of the phrase "While this card is in play" or "While this card is active".

IMPORANT NOTE: It is perfectly possible and not uncommon for a card to fit into two or more of these categories (although more than two is exceptionally rare). With such hybrid cards, you have to be able to tell from the context of the card if you can play it as both or neither. For example, "fire extinguisher" works like a normal equipment card... but with the added special ability to be used in response to certain fire related cards, an example of a card being able to be used as both of its types. Another example, "disarm intent" can only be played either face up as an instant card or face down as a response card. Read the cards carefully to determine the correct usages.

Area Cards

The final type of card, and the least common, is the area card. The area card is the only card whose limit is a global one. There can only be one area card active at a time. The owner of the current area card discards it when a new one is played or when the area is destroyed. Area cards give certain bonuses and penalties which are described on the card.

Conclusion

This conclusion section is only included because my 11th grade English teacher said I always need one. But, that does it for all the rules, so have fun playing the game!